Ingredients

Directions

Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I love this Christmas ball. The original site (Good Housekeeping) said to use it as a kissing ball but I think it would look darling on a tree decorated with pine cones and a red and white striped candy garland.

Keep up ghostly appearances with this witty reflection. Draw a figure on the back of a sheet of frosted window film (Remlor, $14.95 for a 24"W roll; amazon.com). Cut out the silhouette, as well as its eyes and mouth, with an X-Acto knife. Apply the film to a mirror, smoothing as you go.

It takes practically nothing to make this family of mischievous sprites.

Materials

Different-size plastic milk jugs or juice bottles

Laundry starch

Aluminum foil

Paper towels

White gauze or cheesecloth

Instructions

Top each jug or bottle with a ball of crumpled aluminum foil.

Cut white gauze or cheesecloth into 18-inch squares (one square for each ghost). Dip the gauze squares into a bowl filled with laundry starch. Pull them out one at a time and squeeze out the excess moisture. Drape a square over each bottle.

To shape the ghosts' shoulders and arms, loosely pile crumpled aluminum foil near the bottle and drape the gauze over it. Flare out the lower edges of the gauze and let dry overnight. (To make a dog, simply drape a small square of gauze over shaped foil.)

Once they've dried, carefully lift the ghosts from their bottles. They should stand freely on a flat surface.

Give the colorful leaves of autumn some serious staying power by dipping them in wax. Use the preserved leaves to decorate a table or make a fall-inspired mobile.

Materials

Paraffin wax (we used about 1/4 pound)

2 clean cans, one smaller than the other (ours were 13 1/2 and 28 ounces)

Newspaper

Colorful leaves

Waxed paper

Instructions

Place a piece of paraffin wax in the smaller can, and place the smaller can inside the larger one. Add warm water to both cans, filling them to about a half-inch below the rim of the small can. (When melted, the wax will float on top of the water.)

Simmer the water over medium heat until the wax has melted (a parent's job). To avoid spatters, don't let the water and wax come to a full boil.

Use pot holders to remove the cans from the stove and put them on the newspaper. Hold a leaf by its stem, carefully dip it into the wax, then lay it on waxed paper to harden.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Conjure up the illusion of haunted spirits with this easy project. Sand a corner of an old mirror down until it is clear, feathering it at the edge. Copy a photo of a frightened face onto translucent paper and again on white paper. Tape the translucent print to the back of the mirror, then tape the white one behind it, slightly off-center for a ghostly image.

1. Using miniature saw, shave pumpkin's bottom to create a flat, stable base if needed.2. Place hurricane glass over stem, and trace with wax pencil.3. Using miniature saw, cut a hole in top of pumpkin, following pencil line.4. Clean the inside of pumpkin with fleshing tool, removing seeds, pulp, and fibers.5. Place frog inside pumpkin. Insert candle to test height; trim candle base if needed so that the wick is in line with wide portion of hurricane glass.

Secure candle in frog, and slip glass over candle and into pumpkin (make sure it fits snugly inside hole).